Your pet's tracker can work out where they are in several different ways, and the Ask A Vet app picks the best one available at any moment. This article explains the order it chooses in, and why the pin sometimes comes from your phone rather than the tracker.
One pin, one source
At any moment your pet has exactly one position on the map. Every new position that comes in is compared against what's already stored, and only the more trustworthy one is kept and added to your pet's location history. That's why the pin never flickers between two places at once.
Which source wins
From most trusted to least:
| Order | Source | When it's used | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your phone, over Bluetooth | Your pet's tracker is close enough to link to your phone | 90 seconds |
| 2 | The tracker's own GPS | The tracker has a satellite fix | 2 minutes normally, or 30 seconds during LIVE Tracking |
| 3 | A Power Saving Zone position | Your pet is resting in a zone — the pin is the zone's saved spot | 30 minutes |
| 4 | The centre of a safe zone or no-go zone | Your pet was last reported in that zone | 2 hours |
| 5 | A Wi-Fi-assisted position | No better source is available | 5 minutes |
| 6 | A position estimated from nearby mobile masts | Last resort | — |
When the top source goes quiet for longer than its window above, the app falls back to the next one that still has something fresh to offer.
Please note: the GPS window is shorter during LIVE Tracking because LIVE positions arrive constantly.
Why rough positions don't move the pin
A position that reports itself as accurate to worse than 100 m is never used to move the pin. In practice:
| Source | Accuracy it reports | Moves the pin? |
|---|---|---|
| The tracker's own GPS | Doesn't report an accuracy figure | Always accepted |
| Wi-Fi-assisted | Roughly 20–50 m | Normally passes |
| Mast-based estimate | Often 500 m to 2 km | Usually too rough, so rejected |
Please note: because of this, a mast-based estimate rarely moves the pin on its own. If your tracker has mobile signal but no GPS, expect the map to hold the last good position rather than jump to a very rough one.
What the GPS chip means
The small GPS chip above the map names the source of what you're looking at:
| Chip | What it means |
|---|---|
| No signal | The tracker can't get a GPS fix right now |
| Weak, Average, Strong or Excellent | A real GPS fix, with the tracker's own rating of it |
| Approximate | The position is estimated from nearby mobile masts or Wi-Fi, not GPS |
| Proximity | The position comes from your phone's direct Bluetooth link to the tracker |
| Unknown | The source couldn't be identified |
Tip: tap any chip on the map to open the Tracker status sheet, which explains the current state and every term in plain language.
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